Born and raised in Boston, MA, Kem graduated from Milton Academy, where he lettered in soccer and was awarded the school's A.O. Smith prize for excellence in non-fiction writing. Kem entered Wesleyan in the Fall of 1993 and immediately became involved in student activism and campus life. During his undergraduate career, Kem served as co-chair of the Student of Color Council and held various positions on the Ujamaa and Ankh boards. He also volunteered at WESU radio and played on two "A"-league champion intramural soccer teams. In the summer of 1995, Kem was selected for an internship at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was a research assistant in the Civil Rights Division

A member of Sigma chapter's founding interest group, he joined the fraternity during its second year of existence with Melvin Acevedo and Pablo Morales. As an Hermano, Kem served as Social Coordinator and presided over the induction of Hermanos Jose Stevenson and Robert Carrillo.

Kem graduated in 1997 with a degree in American Studies. Kem was until late 1999 an editorial assistant at the Village Voice, where he published several articles on hip-hop culture and wrote a weekly column about New York clubs. Kem has also written extensively for Platform.net and other print and web publications including The Source, CDNow and Trace. He is currently a producer for the HyperTV division of ACTV, a leading provider of interactive and convergent entertainment solutions.